MADELINE BERMAN

For decades after World War Two, Americans both hated and feared Russia and it's communist political system. These feelings were strongest between the late 1940's and 60's. During this era, if a person was not found to be afraid of or 100% opposed to communism, they were considered to be un-American. This mentality was echoed through many facets of life in the Untied States and re-enforced by Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy spearheaded a witch-hunt for communists and communist sympathizers in the U.S. Like many other industries, Hollywood was affected by suspicions and paranoia propagated by McCarthy and his cronies. In truth, the government feared the influence that movies can hold over their audiences. In order to prevent the possibility of a cinematic counter-movement against McCarthyism, a blacklist was instated.

Aside from the Hayes code, the blacklist was the most detrimental creative stranglehold ever placed on the studio system. It tore apart friendships, families, business relations, and even entire lives. In The Whole Equation, Thompson writes, “ …the campaign of the House Committee on Un-American Activities was unconstitutional, and in its punishment, the blacklist, was illegal.” While the 1991 film Guilty by Suspicion is a very good example of the impact of the blacklist in Hollywood, it could never have been made during the era that it was set in, because no one would want to associate with anything opposing McCarthyism, lest there be repercussions.

With the blacklist in place, directors and screenwriters had to be very mindful of what was in the movies they made and how it could potentially be interpreted. There was a great fear throughout the studios to look as patriotic and anti-communist as possible, and because of this, A very successful horror film of the blacklisted era was 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. At first glance, the viewer would find this film to simply be a tale of strange pods taking over people’s minds and bodies, but one could potentially read the film as re-enforcing a xenophobic ideology taking hold within the United States during the era in which the film was produced. With Invasion of the Body Snatchers and other films of the blacklisted era, one might argue that fear of strangers was re-enforced as being patriotic, which is to say, in order to prove that you are a true American, you must act suspicious of foreigners. Fear of outsiders entering the US and upsetting its values has been around since colonial times, but it was only during the red scare that people in power utilized movies as a tool with which to fight back against this perceived threat to the American way of life.

A great example of xenophobia being shown as patriotic is Bad Day at Black Rock. Even as Macreedy steps off the train into the iconic "West" during the first few minutes of the film, everyone in town is immediately suspicious of him. Though the audience eventually comes to realize that the townsfolk have good reason to be wary of him, for they share a collective guilt for a crime that has yet to come to justice, they still identify that the town is made up of Americans. Save Liz Wirth, who winds up getting killed, all of the characters are men making their way in one of the harshest environments the US has to offer. They are all real men, yet they are afraid of this outsider. If it is okay for these guys to act like this, then it is okay for everyone in the US to do the same because white, straight males are the dominant demographic in power and thusly represent the status quo and present an acceptable way to behave. Therefore, they re-enforce xenophobia as a patriotic behavior.